Chapter XLII: Section III: of article 111 of the federal constitution is (10)

"Agriculture has been in a seriously depressed state during
the last four years, and it appears to me as though, under
this influence, doubts have arisen with regard to the
fulfilment of my promises. Nay, it has even been brought home
to me, to my profound regret, that my best intentions have
been misunderstood and in part disputed by members of the
nobility with whom I am in close personal relation. Even the
word 'opposition' has reached my ears.
{241}
Gentlemen, an Opposition of Prussian noblemen, directed
against their king, is a monstrosity. Such an Opposition would
be justifiable only when the king was known to be at its head.
The history of our House teaches us that lesson. How often
have my predecessors had to oppose misguided members of a
single class on behalf of the whole community! The successor
of him who became Sovereign Duke in Prussia in his own right
will follow the same path as his great ancestor. The first
King of Prussia once said, 'Ex me mea nata corona,' and his
great son 'set up his authority as a rocher de bronze.' I, in
my turn, like my imperial grandfather, hold my kingship as by
the grace of God. … We witnessed an inspiring ceremony the day
before yesterday. Before us stands the statue of the Emperor
William, the imperial sword uplifted in his right hand, the
symbol of law and order. It exhorts us all to other duties, to
the serious combating of designs directed against the very
basis of our political and social fabric. To you, gentlemen, I
address my summons to the fight for religion, morality, and order
against the parties of revolution. Even as the ivy winds round
the gnarled oak, and, while adorning it with its leaves,
protects it when storms are raging through its topmost
branches, so does the nobility of Prussia close round my
house. May it, and with it the whole nobility of the German
nation, become a brilliant example to those sections of the
people who still hesitate. Let us enter into this struggle
together. Forward with God, and dishonor to him who deserts
his king."

Time has wrought no change in these extraordinary ideas of the
German Emperor. Speaking at Hamburg, October 19, 1899, on the
necessity of strengthening the naval forces of the Empire, in
order to afford protection to trade over the sea, he said:
"The feeling for these things is only slowly gaining ground in
the German fatherland, which, unfortunately, has spent its
strength only too much in fruitless factional strife. Germans
are only slowly beginning to understand the questions which
are important to the whole world. The face of the world has
changed greatly during the last few years. What formerly
required centuries is now accomplished in a few months. The
task of Kaiser and government has consequently grown beyond
measure, and a solution will only be possible when the German
people renounce party divisions. Standing in serried ranks
behind the Kaiser, proud of their great fatherland, and
conscious of their real worth, the Germans must watch the
development of foreign states. They must make sacrifices for
their position as a world power, and, abandoning party spirit,
they must stand united behind their prince and emperor."
Commenting on this utterance, a recent writer has said: "This
ideal of a docile nation led by a triumphant emperor whose
intelligence embraces everything throws considerable light on
the relations of imperialism to party government and
parliamentary institutions. … There are many other expressions
of the emperor which indicate an almost medieval conception of
his office, a revival of the theory of divine right. The
emperor believes that his grandfather, had he lived in the
Middle Ages, would have been canonized, and that his tomb
would have become a cynosure of pilgrimages from all parts of
the world. … In a speech delivered at Coblenz on August 31,
1897, he speaks of the 'kingship by the grace of God, with its
grave duties, its tremendous responsibility to the Creator
alone, from which no man, no minister, no parliament can
release the monarch.'"

GERMANY: A. D. 1895 (June).
Opening of the Kaiser Wilhelm Ship Canal.

The opening of the new ship canal (named the Kaiser Wilhelm
Canal) between the Baltic and the North Sea was made the
occasion of a great celebration, on the 21st of June, in which
the navies of Great Britain, Russia, France, Austria and Italy
took part, steaming in procession with the German squadron
through the canal. It was also made the occasion for an
exhibition of the newly-formed alliance between Russia and
France, the Russian and French fleets entering the harbor of
Kiel together.

See (in this volume),
FRANCE: A. D. 1895.

The canal had been eight years in building, the first spadeful
of earth in the excavation having been turned by Emperor
William I. at Holtenau, near Kiel, on the 3d of June, 1887.
The canal is thus described: It is "98.6 kilometers (61.27
miles) in length. It begins at Holtenau, on the Bay of Kiel,
and terminates near Brunsbüttel, at the mouth of the River
Elbe, thus running clear through the province of
Schleswig-Holstein from northeast to southwest. Both openings
are provided with huge locks. Near Rendsburg, there is a third
lock connecting the canal with the old Eider Canal. The medium
water level of the canal will be about equal to the medium
water level of Kiel harbor. At the lowest tide the profile of
the canal has, in a depth of 6.17 meters (20 feet 6 inches)
below the surface of the water, a navigable width of 36 meters
(118.11 feet), so as to allow the largest Baltic steamers to
pass each other. For the navy, 22 meters (72.18 feet) of canal
bottom are provided, at least 58 meters (190.29 feet) of water
surface, and 8½ meters (27 feet 9 inches) depth of water. The
greatest depth for merchant vessels was calculated at 6.5
meters (21 feet 3 inches). The estimated cost was $37,128,000.
Two-thirds of the cost is defrayed by Germany; the remaining
one-third by Russia. The time saved by a steam-ship sailing
from Kiel to Hamburg via the canal, instead of through the
Skaugh (the strait between Jutland and Sweden), is estimated
at 2, days. The time of passage through the canal, including
stoppages and delays, will be about thirteen hours. In time of
peace, the canal is to be open to men-of-war, as well as
merchant vessels of every nation, but in time of war, its use
will be restricted to vessels of the German navy. Many vessels
have been wrecked and many lives lost on the Danish and
Swedish coasts, in waters which need not be navigated after
the canal is opened to traffic. Its strategic importance to
Germany will also be great, as it will place that country's
two naval ports, Kiel on the Baltic, and Wilhelmshafen on the
North Sea, within easy access of each other."

_United States Consular Report,
Number 175, page 603._

{242}

GERMANY: A. D. 1895 (June-December).
Census of the Empire and census of Prussia.

"The results of the last census of the German Empire (the
census being taken every five years in December) … have
produced some surprise in that, notwithstanding the alleged
depression of agriculture and manufactures, the tables show an
increase greater than any census since the formation of the
Empire. The population, according to the official figures, is
52,244,503, an increase since December, 1890, of 2,816,027, or
1.14 per cent increase per year. The percentages of the previous
censuses was: In 1871-1875. 1 per cent; 1875-1880, 1.14 per
cent; 1880-1895, 0.7 per cent; 1885-1890, 1.06 per cent. A
striking illustration is given by a comparison with the
figures of the French census. The increase in France for the
same period (1890-1895) was but 124,000, an annual average of
0.07 per cent of its population, and Germans see in this
proportionally smaller increase a reason for certain classes
in France entertaining a less warlike feeling toward Germany,
and thereby assuring general European peace.

"In 1871, at the foundation of the German Empire, its
population was 40,997,000. [In 1890, it was 49,428,470.] The
percentage of increase differs vastly in northern and southern
Germany. In the former, the annual increase was 1.29 per cent;
in the latter, only 0.71 per cent. This must be attributed in
a great measure to the highly developed mining industries of
the Rhineland and Westphalia, where the soil, besides its
hidden mineral wealth, is devoted to agriculture. The southern
states—Bavaria, Baden, and Würtemberg—being more mountainous,
offer less opportunities for agricultural pursuits and are
favored with less natural riches. It is again noticeable that
those provinces which are ultra-agrarian show a very favorable
increase. It would seem that it is not the peasant, but the
great landowner, whose condition is undesirable and that this
condition is due less to the present low prices of cereals and
the customs-revenue policy of the Government than to the
heavily mortgaged estates and lavish style of living which is
not in keeping with their revenues. … "The number of
marriages, which showed a decrease from the middle of the
eighties, has increased since 1892. An unlooked-for increase
is shown in the country population."

_United States, Consular Reports,
June, 1896,
pages. 245-246. _

"Some of the results of the last census of Prussia, taken on
the 14th of June, 1895, with special regard to trades and
professions, have appeared in an official journal devoted to
statistics. … The entire population of Prussia, which includes
the provinces wrested from Poland, Denmark, and Saxony, as
well as the seized Kingdom of Hanover, counts up for both
sexes on the 14th of June, 1895, 31,491,209; by the last
census (December 1, 1890), it was 29,955,281, an increase of
1,335,928, or 5.13 per cent. Of males, June 14, 1895, there
were 15,475,202; December 1, 1890, 14,702,151, an increase of
773,051; females, June 14, 1895, 16,016,007; December 1, 1890,
15,253,130, an increase of 762,877. The relatively small
surplus in Prussia of females over males, viz, 540,805, may …
be ascribed in part to the stoppage of emigration to the
United States since 1892. This affects more men than women,
since men emigrate more readily than women.

"The population of Rhineland is the largest unit in Prussia.
This year it is 5,043,979, against 4,710,391 in 1890, an
increase of 333,588; that of Silesia is 4,357,555, against
4,224,458 in 1890, an increase of only 133,097,
notwithstanding the temporary harvest hands in summer. Posen,
its neighbor province, has the lowest increase of all—about
20,000 souls. All parts of Prussia, however, show some
increase. The largest increase of population—that of Rhineland
or the Rhenish provinces (333,588)—may be safely ascribed to
the flourishing manufactures of that district, while the low
figures in Posen, Silesia, and East Prussia are due to the
depression in agriculture produced by the rivalry of the
United States, Argentina, and Australia, as well as by the
unprotected state of the laborer in his relations with the
landed proprietors.

"One of the surprises of the new census is the small increase
of Berlin's population, all the more remarkable owing to the
unprecedented increase of Berlin for the years between 1870
and 1890. It is on]y 36,288, or 2.2 per cent for the past four
years and a half. By the census of 1895, it was 1,615,082;
1890, 1,578,794; increase, 36,288."

_United States, Consular Reports,
January, 1896, pages 75-76._

GERMANY: A. D. 1895-1898.
The Agrarian Protectionists and their demands.

"The depression of agriculture in Germany was the subject
which most occupied German politicians throughout the year
[1895]. The policy favoured by the Agrarian League was that
advocated by Count Kanitz, of which the following were the
chief points: (1) That the State should buy and sell the
foreign grain, flour, and meal destined for consumption in
Germany; (2) that the average selling price in Germany from
1850 to 1890 should be fixed as the selling price of grain,
and that the price of flour and meal should be determined by
the proportion they bear to the unground grain and the said
selling price, provided that the buying price is covered
thereby; while in the case of higher buying prices, the
selling prices must be proportionally raised; (3) that the
profit obtained be spent, so that a part at least equal to the
amount of the present grain duty flows into the Imperial
Treasury; (4) that steps should be taken for the accumulation
of stocks to be used in extraordinary time of need, as, for
instance, in the event of war; and (5) that a reserve should
be formed when prices are higher at home and abroad, to secure
the payment of the above-mentioned annual amount to the
Treasury. The Emperor, however, repeatedly expressed his
disapproval of this policy, and Prince Bismarck is said to
have remarked that if he were a deputy he would vote for it,
but as Chancellor he would reject it. … The Agrarians now
started an agitation all over the country in favour of Count
Kanitz's proposal, and even threatened to refuse the supplies
required for the navy if the Government should not accept it.
In March, the Emperor referred the question to the committee
of the Federal State Council, which passed a resolution
declaring the proposals of Count Kanitz for establishing a
State monopoly in cereals to be incompatible with the correct
interpretation of the present position of the State in regard
to industry and international trade, and irreconcilable with
Germany's commercial treaties."

_Annual Register, 1895,
pages 256-257._

{243}

"The agrarian protectionists control the Conservative party in
Parliament completely; they are strongly represented in the
Center, or Catholic, party, and are not without a considerable
following among the National Liberals. The Antisemitic party, the
Poles, and other small parties are all infected with the
agrarian protectionist ideas. The only decided opponents, as
well as the only decided free-traders, are to be found among
the three Liberal sections and the Social Democrats. The
agrarian protectionists not only wish to annul the commercial
treaties, because these hinder them from raising the
protective duties on agricultural imports (these duties are by
no means low—for instance, 35 marks per ton on rye or wheat),
but the extreme members of the party advocate the abolition of
the gold standard and the adoption of a so-called bimetallic—in
reality a silver-standard. The most rabid among them oppose
the cutting of canals, because foreign produce would thus
enter Germany on cheaper terms. In short, the agrarian
protectionists oppose the natural evolution of all economic
progress. …

"The old Prussian feudal aristocracy (Junkerthum), forming the
pith and marrow of the agrarian movement, has never been well
off; but for the last twenty years they have suffered from the
competition with the whole world, which is felt so keenly in
all old countries, in the reduction of the rent of land. They
have sunk deeper and deeper into debt, while the standard of
material comfort has risen throughout all classes in Germany.
The 'Junker' has long since given up the hope of making both
ends meet by his own industry, and while endeavoring to raise
the rent of land by various kinds of protective measures, he
is really at the same time struggling for bread-and-butter and
upholding a tradition of political supremacy.

"No government can really satisfy these claims, and hence each
in turn is compelled, sooner or later, to oppose the agrarian
movement. However, considering the strong influence the
Prussian 'Junker' exerts in the army, in the ranks of
government officials, and at court, practical statesmen deem
it advisable to avoid any open rupture with the pack of
famished wolves."

_T. Barth,
Political Germany
(American Review of Reviews, April. 1898)._

GERMANY: A. D. 1896 (January).
Emperor William's congratulations to the President of the
South African Republic on the defeat of the Jameson Raid.

See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):
A. D. 1896 (JANUARY).

GERMANY: A. D. 1896 (May).
The Berlin Industrial Exposition.

See (in this volume)
BERLIN INDUSTRIAL EXPOSITION.

GERMANY: A. D. 1896 (May).
Sugar bounty and sugar tax legislation.

"The sugar-tax amendment law, over which has been waged in the
German Parliament one of the longest and most determined
battles of recent years, was finally enacted as a concession
to the agrarian interest, and went into effect [May, 1896].
Its influence will be to increase the sugar production of
Germany, and, to that extent, exert a depressing effect upon
the general market and the interests of producers in other
beet-growing countries. The circumstances which have led to
the present situation are, briefly, these: From the time when
the Prussian Government began the systematic encouragement of
the beet-sugar industry down to 1887, the tax on sugar for
home consumption was calculated upon the quantity of beets
worked up by each separate factory, it being assumed that the
quantity of roots required to produce a given weight of sugar
would be uniform and invariable. The proportion adopted was 20
units of raw beet root to 1 unit of sugar, which, at the time
when the law was enacted: was approximately correct.

"But, under the stimulus of the export bounties provided by
the same law, the German beet growers and sugar makers worked
hard and intelligently to improve and increase their product.
By careful selection and cultivation, the beets were so
improved that from 12 to 14 tons of roots would yield a ton of
sugar. Great advance was also made in the machinery and
processes employed in the sugar factories, so that, as a final
result, the German Government, which paid nearly 12 cents per
cwt. bounty on all sugar exported, and charged 11 tax of the
same amount on all sugar for home consumption that could be
made from 20 cwts. of beets, found that the export bounties
completely absorbed the revenue derived from the sugar tax.
This tendency of the system had become apparent as early as
1869, and an attempt was made at that time to revise the law,
but the sugar-producing interest was powerful enough to resist
this effort. … Sugar growing still continued to be the most
profitable form of culture for German farmers, the area of
cultivation and number of sugar factories continued to
increase, loud complaints were heard against a system that
favored one class of farmers at the expense of the entire
population, and, in 1891, the Imperial Diet reduced the sugar
export bounty by half, that is, to 29.7 cents per 100
kilograms, and decreed that such bounty should entirely cease
on the 31st of July, 1897, provided that, in the meantime,
Austria, France, and other bounty-paying countries should
likewise reduce their bounties on exported sugar. Several
attempts have been made to reach such an international
agreement, but without successful result, and under cover of
this failure to secure a general reduction or abolition of
bounties, the German Agrarians have rallied and secured the
adoption of the present law, which restores the export bounty
of 1887 (59.5 cents per 220.46 pounds) and raises the tax on
sugar for home consumption from 18 marks ($4.28) to 21 marks
($4.99) per 100 kilograms, or about 2.2 cents per pound. This
increased tax will, of course, be added to the retail price of
sugar, already very high, and tend to still further retard the
increase of sugar consumption in Germany, which is now only
28.8 pounds per capita, against. 73.68 pounds per capita in
England and 77 pounds in the United States. …

"From the statistics that were brought out in the recent
debate, it appears that the whole system of beet culture and
sugar manufacture in Germany has reached a higher standard of
scientific perfection than has been attained in any other
European country. Every step, from the preparation and
fertilization of the land to the smallest detail in the
factory process, has been reduced as nearly as possible to
exact scientific methods. … Statistics were cited to prove
that the German sugar producers are safe from all European
competition and do not need the protection of an increased
export bounty; but nothing could withstand the demand of the
Agrarians, and their victory is one of the most significant
events in recent German legislation."

_United States Consular Reports,
July, 1896, page 512._

See, also, (in this volume)
SUGAR BOUNTIES.

GERMANY: A. D. 1897.
Industrial combinations.
Trusts.

See (in this volume)
TRUSTS: IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.

{244}

GERMANY: A. D. 1897 (July).
Defeat in Prussia of a bill to restrict the right of
political association and meeting.

In July, the government in Prussia suffered a significant
defeat in the Prussian Landtag on an attempt to give the
police new powers for interference with political meetings and
associations. The bill was especially aimed at the Social
Democrats, enacting in its first clause that "agents of the
police authorities have power to dissolve meetings in which
anarchist or Social Democratic movements are manifest, having
for their object the overthrow of the existing order of state
or of society, and finding an expression in a manner which
endangers public security, and in particular the security of
the state." It passed the upper house overwhelmingly, but was
rejected in the lower by 209 votes to 205.

GERMANY: A. D. 1897 (July).
British notice to terminate existing commercial treaties.

See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (JUNE-JULY).

GERMANY: A. D. 1897 (September-December).
Demand for indemnity enforced against Hayti.

See (in this volume)
HAYTI: A. D. 1897.

GERMANY: A. D. 1897 (November-December).
Seizure and acquisition of Kiao-chau Bay.
Naval expedition to China.
Speeches of the Emperor and Prince Henry.

The murder of two German missionaries in Shantung province,
China, gave the German government a pretext, in November,
1897, for the seizure of the port of Kiao-chau, on demands for
indemnity which were not satisfied until the Chinese
government had consented to lease that port, with adjacent
territory, to Germany, for 99 years, with extensive rights and
privileges in the whole rich province of Shantung.

See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1897 (NOVEMBER).

To support this opening of an "imperial policy" in the East, a
German naval expedition was despatched to China, in December,
under the command of the Emperor's brother, Prince Henry, and
its departure was made the occasion for speeches by the
Emperor and Prince Henry, at a royal banquet, at Kiel, which
caused much remark, and some smiling, in Europe and America.
Said the Emperor, addressing his brother, at the end of some
remarks in a similar strain: "As a sign of imperial and of
naval power, the squadron, strengthened by your division, will
now have to act in close intercourse and good friendship with
all the comrades of the foreign fleets out there, for the
protection of our home interests against everybody who tries
to injure Germany. That is your vocation and your task. May it
be clear to every European out there, to the German merchant,
and above all, to the foreigner whose soil we may be on, and
with whom we shall have to deal, that the German Michael has
planted his shield, adorned with the eagle of the empire,
firmly on that soil, in order, once for all, to afford
protection to those who apply to him for it. May our
countrymen abroad, whether priests or merchants, or of any
other calling, be firmly convinced that the protection of the
German Empire, as represented by the imperial ships, will be
constantly afforded them. Should, however, anyone attempt to
affront us, or to infringe our good rights, then strike out
with mailed fist, and if God will, weave round your young brow
the laurel which nobody in the whole German Empire will
begrudge you."

The Prince in reply said: "Most Serene Emperor, most powerful
King and Lord, illustrious brother,—As children we grew up
together. Later on it was granted to us as men to look into
each other's eyes and stand faithfully at each other's side.
To your Majesty the imperial crown has come with thorns. I
have striven in my restricted sphere and with my scanty
strength, as man, soldier, and citizen, to help your Majesty.
We have reached a great epoch, an important epoch for the
nation—an important epoch for your Majesty and the Navy. Your
Majesty has made a great sacrifice, and has shown great favour
to myself in entrusting this command to me. I thank your
Majesty from the bottom of a loyal, brotherly and humble
heart. I well understand your Majesty's feelings. I know what
a heavy sacrifice you made in giving me so fine a command. It
is for this reason, your Majesty, that I am so much moved, and
that I so sincerely thank you. I am further deeply indebted
for the confidence which your Majesty reposes in my weak
person, and I can assure your Majesty of this—I am not allured
by hopes of winning glory or laurels, I am only animated by one
desire—to proclaim and preach abroad to all who will hear, as
well as to those who will not, the gospel of your Majesty's
anointed person. This I will have inscribed on my banner, and
will bear it wherever I go. These sentiments with which I set
out are shared by my comrades. I raise my glass and call upon
those who with me enjoy the happy privilege of being permitted
to go forth, to remember this day, to impress the person of
the Emperor on their minds, and to let the cry resound far out
into the world—Our most Serene, Mighty, Beloved Emperor, King and
Master, for ever and ever. Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!"

GERMANY: A. D. 1897-1900.
Practical operation of the state system of
workingwoman's insurance.
Enlargement of its provisions.

By a series of laws enacted in 1883, 1884, and 1889, a system
of compulsory state insurance of workingmen was established in
Germany, applying in the first instance to sickness, then to
accidents, and finally becoming a pensioning insurance for old
age and permanent invalidity. These laws establish a
compulsion to be insured, but leave freedom of choice as to
the associations in which the insurance shall be maintained,
all such associations being under the surveillance of the
state. In a report from United States Consul J. C. Monaghan,
Chemnitz, made July, 1898. the practical working of the system
to that time is thus described: "Time is proving the practical
value of the German workingmen's insurance system. … The
social and economic influence of so gigantic a system must be
very great.

"The object of the system is to alleviate the sufferings of
workmen and their families: (1) In cases of sickness (sick
insurance); (2) in cases of accidents incurred at work
(accident insurance); (3) in cases of feebleness, wasting
diseases, decreased capacity to work, and old age (invalid and
old-age insurance). In cases coming under Number 1 there is
given free medical treatment; sick money—that is, money during
period of sickness with which to obtain medicine, nourishment,
etc.—or, if desired, free treatment in a hospital and support for
the family; and money, in case of death, is supplied the
family. The fund is furnished by employers and employed—the
former paying one-third, the latter two-thirds. In cases of
accident insurance the parties receive support during
convalescence, from the fourteenth week after the accident
happens.
{245}
Money is given the wounded person from the fifth week. Rents
are paid from the first day of the fourteenth week after the
accident. The rents amount to two-thirds, and in some cases to
three-fifths, of the workman's yearly salary. The fund for burial
expenses is furnished by the employers. In cases coming under
invalid and old-age insurance, the parties receive rents from
the time they are unable to work, without regard to age;
old-age rents, from the seventieth year, even if they can work
and do not draw invalid rent; and assistance against disease
so as to prevent incapacity. In case of his death or marriage,
the full sum paid by the party is returned.

"The following amounts were paid out in the years given:

Sick Accident Invalid and Old Age
insurance insurance insurance
Year.
1885-86. $23,905,005 $460,625 —
1887. 13,138,099 1,412,030 —
1888. 14,651,637 2,304,173 —
1889. 16,892,097 3,442,503 —
1890. 20,013,420 4,835,041 —
1891. 21,243,594 6,289,483 $3,643,089
1892. 22,433,499 7,696,967 5,344,742
1893. 24,269,264 9,082,984 6,700,509
1894. 23,702,063 10,539,044 8,312,475
1895. 24,947,731 11,929,940 10,221,647
1896. 26,114,026 13,602,747 12,293,533
1897. 26,207,417 15,252,301 14,161,000

Total. 257,517,856 86,847,842 60,696,997

"During the years from 1885 to 1897 employers had paid in
1,337,741,176 marks ($318,382,399), and workmen 1,173,449,805
marks ($279,281,053), a total of 2,511,190,981 marks
($597,663,452). Of this amount 1,702,184,100 marks
($405,121,816) have been paid out. Thus the workmen have
already received 528,700,000 marks ($125,830,600) more than
they have paid in. The annual amount paid out is increasing at
the rate of 15,000.000 marks ($3,570,000) per annum. The
reserve fund at the end of 1897 was, in round numbers,
850,000,000 marks ($202,500,000). For every twentieth person
of the Empire's population, one has been paid insurance.

"Besides this system, there are others by which workingmen are
aided. There are State and private insurance and pension
systems. One alone, the Miners' and Smelters' Union, paid out
in the years 1895-1897, inclusive, 320,000,000 marks
($76,160,000). From 1900 on, the annual amount to be paid out
will be upwards of 300,000,000 marks ($71,400,000), or 100
marks ($23.80) for every working-day in the year. Whether a
system which makes so much for paternalism is one to commend,
I can not say. Its effects here have been anything but bad.
Poverty, in spite of poor wages, is practically unknown."

_United States Consular Reports,
September, 1898, page 51._

A revision of the accident insurance law in 1900 extended the
compulsory insurance to laborers in breweries and in the shops
of blacksmiths, locksmiths and butchers, and to window
cleaners. It raised the amount of assistance provided for the
injured in many cases, making it in some instances of
permanent, disability equal to the wages previously earned. It
also fixed more sharply the responsibility for carelessness on
the part of an employer.

GERMANY: A. D. 1898.
Lèse-majesté.

"In 1898 there were 246 convictions for 'lèse-majesté,' and
the punishments inflicted amounted to a total of 83 years
imprisonment, in addition to various terms of confinement in a
fortress."

_Annual Register,
1899, page 273._

GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (March-December).
In the Chinese "Battle of Concessions."

See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-DECEMBER).

GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (April).
The new naval policy.

"One of the most important economic movements taking place in
Germany is the development of her maritime interests. The
mercantile marine and 'over-sea' interests had developed to
such an extent that recently the Government obtained the
consent of the nation to add largely to its navy. During the
year 1897 continuous efforts had been made to bring this
question prominently before the public, and to point out the
absolute necessity of a large increase of the navy in order to
adequately protect Germany's growing maritime interests. The
introductory statement of the bill presented to the Reichstag
in November gave great prominence to the following
considerations of general interest in connection with the new
programme, namely, that during the last twenty years the
increase of imports and exports, the rapid investment of
capital abroad, the acquisition of colonies, the flourishing
fisheries, and the rapidly increasing population had greatly
added to German 'over-sea' interests, but that at the same
time this expansion had brought with it the danger of a
conflict with the interests of foreign nations, which must be
provided against by an increase of the navy, for any injury to
these maritime interests would entail serious consequences on
the whole country.

"The bill, as eventually passed on April 10, 1898, provided
that the nonrecurring expenditure should not exceed
£20,445,000, of which £17,835,000 was to be devoted to the
construction of ships and their armaments. The German fleet
will then be brought up to a total strength of 17 battle ships
of the line, 8 coast-defense vessels, 9 large and 26 small
cruisers, besides a variety of torpedo and other small craft.
It is thought and hoped that, in consequence of the favorable
state of the revenues of the Empire, a total sum of £5,876,274
a year can easily be devoted exclusively to the annual naval
budget of the next six years, by which time the additions to
the fleet are to be completed."

_United States Bureau of Statistics,
Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance,
January, 1899._

See, also, (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (JUNE).

GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (April).
Withdrawal from the blockade of Crete and
the "Concert of Europe."

See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1897-1899.

GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (June).
Elections to the Imperial Parliament, and their significance.

Elections to the Parliament of the Empire (the Reichstag) took
place in June, and resulted in the following distribution of
seats:

Conservatives, 52;
Imperialists, 22;
National Liberals, 48;
Liberal Unionists, 12;
Liberal Democrats, 29;
German Democrats, 8;
Social Democrats, 56;
Centre (Catholic), 106;
Poles, 14;
Anti-Semites, 10;
Independents, 40;
Total, 397.

{246}

"The elections as a whole show the growing power of German
manufactures and the decline of German agriculture. Germany
has become already, in far less time than it took England, a
great urban community. That appears to us the most prominent
fact in German life, and it was therefore bound to make itself
manifest in German politics. In spite of Imperial patronage,
the rural parties have lost. Both the Conservative sections
have indeed lost rather heavily; the Conservatives proper
standing in the new Reichstag at sixty-two instead of at
seventy-two, as in the Reichstag of 1893, and the Free
Conservatives at twenty instead of twenty-seven. The losses of
the National Liberals, who usually vote solidly with the
Conservatives, are smaller, but still they have lost. Though
they represent 'Particularism,' yet the Poles are a peasant
party, and they have lost, standing as they do at fourteen as
compared with nineteen in 1893. The Anti-Semites, who under
clerical guidance draw their strength largely from country
districts, have also lost. On the other hand, those parties
which have gained are the parties which hold the German
cities,—the Centre, the Radicals, and the Social Democrats.
The Centre, as we have said, represents the nascent Rhenish
and Bavarian industrialism, the Radicals have made significant
gains in Berlin, and the Social Democrats have gained in nearly
all the towns except Berlin, where they have lost seats to the
Radicals,—on what ground does not seem clear, unless it is
that the more Anarchical section, which has all along been
strong in Berlin Socialism, has rebelled against the
centralised dictatorship of the party. We imagine that the
urban professional and trading classes, dependent for their
position on the growth of industry, have mainly voted Radical,
and that the working classes have, on the whole, voted
Socialist, except in those cases where they have, as devout
Catholics, supported the Centre party. It will be seen,
therefore, that what we may call Toryism (of an extreme and
fanatical type, practically unknown in England), representing
rural proprietorial interests, has lost: and that the forces
of democracy, whether Liberal of the 'Manchester' type,
Socialist, or Catholic, but all representing the growth of
industrialism and urban life, have gained. In short, what
strikes us as the most obvious moral of the elections is that
the old forces and forms of German life are weakening, that
the ancient Conservative entrenchments are being destroyed,
and that we now have to deal with a modernised Germany.

"It may perhaps be asked why we place the Centre party in the
same category with the Radicals and Social Democrats, since
the last-named party is avowedly anti-religious, and the
Radicals are largely indifferent on the religious question. We
reply that the Centre party is essentially a democratic party,
and a party, moreover, committed to reforms only less
far-reaching than those of the Social Democrats, for whose
candidates the Catholic democratic electors have often voted
on the second ballots. The Centre party embodies to a large
extent the spirit of Bishop Ketteler of Mainz, the chief
founder of German Catholic 'Christian Socialism': its organs
in the Press are democratic in tone: and so far as the present
Pope has advanced in the direction of wide Catholic social
reform, he has had no stronger supporters than the members of
the German Centre party, with the possible exception of the
democratic American Catholic prelates, with whom the Centre
party has much in common. This being the case, it is clear
that democracy, in some or other of its varied forms, controls
a majority of votes in the Reichstag: a small majority, it is
true."

_The Spectator (London),
July 2, 1898._

GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (June).
The Sugar Conference at Brussels.

See (in this volume)
SUGAR BOUNTIES.

GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (July).
Death of Prince Bismarck.

Prince Otto van Bismarck, whose importance in German history
is comparable only with that of Charlemagne, Luther, and
Frederick the Great, died on the 31st of July, at the age of
83. Immediately upon his death his confidential secretary. Dr.
Moritz Busch, made public the full text of the letter of
resignation which Bismarck addressed to the Emperor, William
II., when he withdrew—practically dismissed—from the public
service, in 1890. It showed that the immediate cause of his
resignation was an order from the new sovereign which repealed
an arrangement established by the latter's grandfather, in 1852,
whereby a responsible ministry was created in Prussia, through
the giving of responsible authority to a prime minister at its
head. For nearly half a century that constitutional usage had
been maintained. William II. appears to have made his first
grasp at absolutism by setting it aside, and thereupon
Bismarck resigned, as he was undoubtedly expected to do.

GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (October-November).
The Emperor's visit to Palestine.

A journey made by the Emperor and Empress, with a large
retinue and considerable state, first to Constantinople, and
then to Palestine, in October and November, was suspected of
having some other motive than a love of travel and an interest
in seeing the Holy Land. Looked at in connection with some
other movements, it was supposed to indicate a policy aiming
at the establishment of German influence in the realm of the
Turk.

GERMANY: A. D. 1899.
Complaints from Danish Sleswick.

"It can never be anything but an encroachment and a cruelty to
insist, as is now being done in Danish North Sleswick, that
all teaching in the schools, with the exception of two
miserable hours a week of religious lessons, shall be carried
on in German, and to forbid even private instruction in the
Danish language. It can never be called anything but brutality
and meanness to punish young men who go into Danish territory
for the purpose of study by depriving their parents of their
parental rights, or by expelling innocent persons from the
country. These methods, too, are beside the purpose. The
Germans complain that Danes who have become Prussian subjects
against their will do not feel like Prussians. They are
tortured and annoyed, subjected to the most minute espionage
and the most contemptible police reports, with the persecution
connected therewith, and then it is considered amazing that
they are not changed into enthusiastic admirers of Prussia. …
The Danish language, in spite of its small area, is a language
of culture. And only the same undue self-admiration which the
Germans are in the habit of criticising in the French can look
upon the forcible extermination of Danish culture, for the
sake of spreading German, as a worthy act, an end that
justifies the means. …

{247}

"Some years ago the actors of the Royal Theatre were forbidden
to produce some innocent old vaudevilles in Sleswick towns
(although permission had already been given to the owner of a
theatre in Haderslev; indeed, they were not even allowed to
remain over night at an hotel. Intense indignation was roused
in Denmark by this narrow-minded police rule, which used as a
pretext the danger to the peace and quietness of Germany of a
scenic representation in Danish. This, however, was nothing
compared with recent events, which, however, will in South
Jutland only have a stimulating effect on the self-respect and
patriotism of the people; while in Denmark those who have
hitherto tried to bring about a better understanding between
Danes and Germans will throw up the game, and without
superfluous words take their stand on the side of the
oppressed. The Danes can and must submit to humiliations,
which the stronger nation again and again puts upon the
weaker, humiliations which itself would never stand from any
other Power. But one thing they cannot do. They cannot give up
exerting all their power to preserve their language and
culture within the Sleswick territory, which for a thousand
years has been Danish, and is so still. They would be
miserable creatures if they could. From the Danish side no
attempt has been made, nor can be made, to regain politically
what has been lost. No political agitation has been
undertaken, nor can it be undertaken, to excite the South
Jutlanders against the conditions which by ill-fate have once
been legally imposed upon them. But the alliance of hearts and
minds cannot be broken even by a great Power like Germany.

"How insecure this Prussian rule feels in North Sleswick in
spite of its mailed fist! Everything alarms it. It dares not
allow Danish actors to play an old vaudeville dating from
1830. It fears the storm of applause which would break loose
as soon as the first unimportant, but Danish, words were heard
from the stage. It feels obliged to forbid a Danish orator
from holding any discourse whatsoever on South Jutland
territory. He is not even allowed to speak on literature—not
on German literature, not even on Goethe. For one can really
never know!—One cannot be sure that the audience, in spite of
the subject being of no political significance whatever,
though even it be a German national topic, might not seize the
opportunity to applaud a speaker from Denmark. And in Heaven's
name that must not happen! On such fragile feet of clay does
the Prussian Colossus stand in Sleswick that it cannot bear a
hand-clap after a Danish lecture on Goethe. Still less can it
endure Danish reading-books and Danish song-books in the hands
of little children, or Danish colours in a lady's gown or upon
a house; Danish songs it fears even behind closed doors. What
is the use of gendarmes if not to wage war against colours and
songs? Such is the measure of the anxiety of Prussia, equipped
with all the instruments of power, as to whether German might,
German wealth, German military glory, German science and art,
and half a hundred million of German people will exercise so
great an attraction on the inhabitants of North Sleswick as
the important miniature State which bears the name of
Denmark."

_G. Brandes,
Denmark and Germany
(Contemporary Review, July, 1899)._

GERMANY: A. D. 1899.
Foreign interests of the German people.

United States Consul J. C. Monaghan wrote from Chemnitz in
1899:

"German economists are not exaggerating when they say this
Empire's people and capital are operating in every part of the
world. Not only Hamburg, Bremen, Stettin, Lübeck, and Kiel—i.
e., the seaport cities—but towns far inland, have invested
millions in foreign enterprises. In the Americas, North and
South, in Australia, in Asia, in a large part of Africa,
German settlements, German factories, German merchants, and
German industrial leaders are at work. Nor is it always in
settlements under the Empire's control that this influence is
strongest. In Senegambia, on the Gold Coast, the Slave Coast,
in Zanzibar and Mozambique, in Australia, Samoa, the Marshall
Islands, Tahiti, Sumatra, and South and Central America, there
are powerful commercial organizations aiding the Empire. From
Vladivostock to Singapore, on the mainland of Asia, and in
many of the world's most productive islands, the influence of
German money and thrift is felt. In Central America and the
West Indies, millions of German money are in the plantations;
so, too, in the plantations along the Gold Coast. In
Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba,
Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Venezuela, Brazil, etc., German capital
plays a very important part in helping to develop the
agricultural and in some cases the manufacturing and
commercial interests. A consequence of this development is
seen in the numerous banking institutions whose fields of
operation show that German commerce is working more and more
in foreign parts. These banks look after and aid foreign
investment as well as the Empire's other commercial relations.
They help the millions of Germans in all parts of the world to
carry on trade relations, not only with the Fatherland, but
with other countries.

"These are the links in a long and very strong chain of gold
uniting the colonies with the Mother Country. Quite recently,
large quantities of German capital have been invested in
various industries. The Empire's capital in United States
railroads is put down at $180,000,000. In America, Germans
have undertaken manufacturing. They have used German money to
put up breweries, hat factories, spinning, weaving, and paper
mills, tanneries, soap-boiling establishments, candle mills,
dye houses, mineral-water works, iron foundries, machine
shops, dynamite mills, etc. Many of these mills use German
machinery, and not a few German help. The Liebig Company, the
Chilean saltpeter mines, the Chilean and Peruvian metal mines,
many of the mines of South Africa, etc., are in large part
controlled by German money and German forces. Two hundred
different kinds of foreign bonds or papers are on the Berlin,
Hamburg, and Frankfort exchanges. Germany has rapidly risen to
a very important place in the financial, industrial, and
mercantile world. Will she keep it? Much will depend on her
power to push herself on the sea."

_United States Consular Reports,
September, 1899, page 127._

{248}

GERMANY: A. D. 1899.
Military statistics.

A report presented to the Reichstag showed the total number of
men liable for service in 1899, including the surplus from
previous years, was 1,696,760. Of these 716,998 were 20 years
of age, 486,978 of 21 years, 362,568 of 22 years, and 130,216
of more than 22 years. The whereabouts of 94,224 was unknown,
and 97,800 others failed to appear and sent no excuse; 427,586
had already undertaken military duties, 579,429 cases were
either adjourned or the men rejected (for physical reasons),
1,245 were excluded from the service, 43,196 were exempt,
112,839 were incorporated in the naval reserve, 226,957 were
called upon to join the colors, leaving a surplus of 5,187;
there were 23,266 volunteers for the army and 1,222 for the
navy. Of the 226,957 who joined the colors 216,880 joined the
army as combatants and 4,591 as non-combatants, and 5,486
joined the navy. Of the 5,486 the maritime population
furnished 3,132 and the inland 2,354. There were 21,189 men
who entered the army before attaining the regulation age, and
1,480 under age who entered the navy; 33,652 of the inland
population and only 189 of the maritime were condemned for
emigrating without leave; while 14,150 inland and 150 maritime
cases were still under consideration at the end of the year.

GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (February).
Chinese anti-missionary demonstrations in Shantung.

See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1899.

GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (February).
Purchase of Caroline, Pelew and Marianne Islands from Spain.

See (in this volume)
CAROLINE AND MARIANNE ISLANDS.

GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.

See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.

GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (May-August).
Advice to the South African Republic.

See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):
A. D. 1899 (MAY-AUGUST).

GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (June).
State of German colonies.

The following report on German colonies for the year ending
June 30, 1899, was made to the British Foreign Office by one
of the secretaries of the Embassy at Berlin:

"The number of Europeans resident in the German African
Protectorates, viz., Togoland, Cameroons, South-West Africa,
and East Africa, at the time of the issue of the latest
colonial reports in the course of 1899 is given as 4,522 men,
women, and children, of whom 3,228 were Germans. The expense
to the home government of the African colonies, together with
Kiao-chao in the Far East, the Caroline and Samoa Islands in
the South Seas, and German New Guinea and its dependencies, is
estimated at close upon £1,500,000 for 1900, the Imperial
Treasury being asked to grant in subsidies a sum nearly double
that required last year. Kiao-chao is included for the first
time in the Colonial Estimates, and Samoa is a new item. The
Imperial subsidy has been increased for each separate
Protectorate, with the single exception of the Caroline
Islands, which are to be granted £5,000 less than last year.
East Africa receives about £33,000 more; the Cameroons,
£10,000; South-West Africa, £14,000; Togoland, £800; New
Guinea, £10,000; and the new items are: £489,000 for Kiao-chao
(formerly included in the Naval Estimates), and £2,500 for
Samoa. A Supplementary Vote of £43,265 for the Protectorate
troops in the Cameroons is also now before the Budget
Committee. …

"Great efforts have been made to encourage German trade with
the African colonies, and it is shown that considerable
success has been attained in South-West Africa, where the
total value of goods imported from Germany amounted to
£244,187, as against £181,961 in the previous year, with an
appreciable falling-off in the value of imports from other
countries. In East Africa the greater part of the import trade
still comes from India and Zanzibar—about £450,000 worth of
goods out of the gross total of £592,630, having been imported
thence. The export trade is also largely carried on through
Zanzibar."

_Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command: Miscellaneous Series,
Number 528, 1900, pages 3-5)._

GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (August).
Defeat of the Rhine-Elbe Canal Bill.
Resentment of the Emperor.
An extraordinary edict.

Among several new canal projects in Germany, those of "the
Dortmund-Rhine Canal and the Great Midland Canal (joining from
the east to west the rivers Elbe, Weser, and Rhine) are the
most important. The first involves an expenditure of over
£8,000,000 altogether, and the second is variously estimated
at from £10,000,000 to £20,000,000, according to its eventual
scope. The latter is intended to amalgamate the eastern and
western waterways of the nation and to join the Dortmund-Ems
Canal to the Rhine system, in order to give the latter river
an outlet to the sea via a German port, instead of only
through ports in the Netherlands. It will also place the
Rhine-Main-Danube connection in direct communication with all
the streams of North Germany."

_United States Bureau of Statistics,
Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance,
January, 1899._

The Rhine-Elbe canal project is one which the Emperor has
greatly at heart, and when, in August, 1899, a bill to promote
it was defeated in the Prussian Landtag by the Agrarians, who
feared that canal improvements would promote agricultural
competition, his resentment was expressed in an extraordinary
edict, which said: "The royal government, to its keen regret,
has been compelled to notice that a number of officials, whose
duty it is to support the policy of His Majesty the King, and to
execute and advance the measures of His Majesty's government,
are not sufficiently conscious of this obligation. … Such
conduct is opposed to all the traditions of the Prussian
administration, and cannot be tolerated." This was followed by
an extensive dismissal of officials, and excited strong
feeling against the government in a class which is nothing if
not loyal to the monarchy.

GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (November).
Railway concession in Asia Minor, to the Persian Gulf.

See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1899 (NOVEMBER).

GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (November).
Re-arrangement of affairs in the Samoan Islands.
Partition of the islands with the United States.
Withdrawal of England, with compensations in the Tonga
and Solomon Islands and in Africa.

See (in this volume)
SAMOAN ISLANDS.

GERMANY: A. D. 1900.
Military and naval expenditure.

See (in this volume)
WAR BUDGETS.

GERMANY: A. D. 1900.
Naval strength.

See (in this volume)
NAVIES OF THE SEA POWERS.

GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (January).
Introduction of the Civil Code.

On the first day of the year 1900 a great revolution was
effected in the laws of Germany, by putting into operation the
new German Civil Code. "Since the close of the fifteenth
century Germany has been the land of documentary right. The
Roman judicial code was recognized as common law; while all
legal procedure distinctly native in its origin was confined
to certain districts and municipalities, and was, therefore,
entirely devoid of Imperial signification in the wider sense.
The Civil Code of the land was represented by the Corpus Juris
Civilis, a Latin work entirely incomprehensible to the layman.
{249}
This very remarkable circumstance can be accounted for only by
the weakness of mediæval German Imperialism. In England and
France royalty itself had, since the fourteenth century,
assumed control of the laws in order that a homogeneous
national code might be developed. German Imperialism of the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, however, was incapable of
such a task. …